Healthy Lifestyles

As a fitness professional, I am very concerned about the physical wellness of officials. There are several reasons why good physical fitness is important.

In addition to heart disease and other ailments, the cost it takes to manage disease is high. Prevention is far more affordable, but it takes great effort to stay with a regular exercise program. There are numerous reasons why Americans should engage in a regular exercise program and the reason I exercise and prescribe exercise to all ages is to have a high quality of life.

Q: The importance of stretching and maintaining healthy leg muscles is paramount for officials. What leg muscles require proper maintenance so that we can run well on the court or field?

A: In addition to calves, there are two other key sets of muscles: quadriceps – or "quads" – and the hamstrings.

Q: Could you describe these muscles and what they do?

A: The quadriceps are a set of four muscles (hence the name: "quads") along the front of the thigh. They come together to form the patella tendon which essentially holds the kneecap inside a groove in your thigh bone (the femur), which by the way is the strongest bone in your body.

In order to flourish on the court or playing field, game management is a key factor. Keeping athletes under control, coaches satisfied and fans in line are prominent traits of a successful official. Determination to keep the game as crisp and clean as possible in order to facilitate the best outcome achievable is the No. 1 objective for which every referee should strive.

Each year as a new high school football season begins, freshmen become sophomores, sophomores become juniors, and juniors become seniors. A new season brings a new class of athletes with youth and optimism. Those who don the stripes on Friday nights to officiate these young men also look forward to a new season with new expectations. One great difference is that most often the officials are the same group of men from the year before and the one before that and, well, you see the trend. Generally, officials keep getting older, while the age of a given team is roughly the same. Older can translate into heavier, less-flexible, and less physically fit, which also can increase the risk for a significant injury or cardiac event.

MRSA is no longer an unfamiliar term to the tight knit wrestling community, of the perennial powerhouse of New York State, Suffolk County. Nick Mauriello, a highly ranked wrestler from Hauppauge High School, was in critical condition at Stony Brook UniversityMedical Center last winter after being diagnosed with both MRSA and Lemierre's syndrome, a second, rarer bacterial infection. The reaction to Mauriello’s bout with MRSA has necessitated the appropriate actions and hopefully they will surpass the precautions that were previously taken in Suffolk County. It’s going to take a combined effort from the coaches, referees and parents to help significantly reduce the risk and spread of MRSA infection.

Officials should always try to improve. They spend time studying the new rule changes, reviewing the old rules. They work on their mechanics and techniques to be prepared for the next season. Often physically preparing for the next season is delayed to the last minute. Now is the time to start that preparation. Why do officials need to perform pre-season conditioning?